In the Age of Romanticism: Scott's "Lady of the Lake," and Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," although this last is perhaps best regarded as a study of the poet's emotions upon visiting the grandest scenes in Europe.
In Nineteenth Century Literature: Longfellow's "Evangeline" and "Hiawatha" are short epics. Owing to the central, unifying figure of King Arthur, Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" have much of the epic effect.
Lyric poetry includes all verse that presents the poet's feelings and passions; it is characterized also by plentiful use of varied ideas, rich and fanciful imagery, and rhythmical flow of language.
From the beginning there were shorter songs, as well as the epic, often accompanied on the lyre, a small harp, from which this branch of poetry takes its name. To-day lyric poetry tends toward a lighter tone and spirit than in the Romantic Period; in length it may vary very widely, from the little quatrain, of four lines, to an ode or a ballad of almost epic extent. Burns, Milton, Moore, Byron, Keats, Shelley, Shakespeare, and Wordsworth are among the foremost in this field; among the ancients Catullus, Horace, and Sappho are prominent; while the writings of Goethe, Heine, Uhland, Longfellow, Whittier, Browning, Tennyson, and Swinburne contain many that are familiar. Musical accompaniment is no longer essential. There are several forms of the lyric, chief among which are the following:
The Ode, addressed to a person or a personified idea or else expressing the poet's emotions at a moment of great exaltation. In form it either follows a varying sequence of lines of irregular length or else employs a series of uniform stanzas. Illustrative of the former are Dryden's "Alexander's Feast" and "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day," and Wordsworth's "Ode on Intimations of Immortality"; among the latter are Collins's "Ode to Evening," Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn," Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" and "To a Skylark," and Wordsworth's "To the Cuckoo" and "Ode to Duty."
The Sonnet, of Italian origin, was brought to its perfection by Petrarch; it consists of fourteen lines of equal length (in English usually of ten syllables), the first eight lines constituting the octave and the last six, the sestet. In the octave the rhymes are arranged a b b a a b b a, and in the sestet, either c d c d c d or c d e c d e. The sonnet should contain one idea, which may be treated from two points of view, in the octave and sestet respectively. As used by Milton and later poets in England this double treatment was not often observed and there is no break of thought at the end of the octave. Owing to its restrictions the sonnet is considered one of the most difficult forms in which to achieve distinction, as metrical ingenuity without sublimity of thought bars mere versifiers. The most noted examples by English authors are E. B. Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese," Keats's "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," Milton's "On His Blindness," Shelley's "England in 1819," and those selected from Wordsworth.
The Ballad, partaking somewhat of the epic, is a tale in verse, usually arranged in short stanzas. "Old English Ballads," Cowper's "The Diverting History of John Gilpin," Drayton's "Ballad of Agincourt," and Rossetti's "The White Ship" are specimens of this form. It originated among the peasantry, who commemorated the prowess of their favorite heroes in rough verse sung by the cottage hearth.
The Elegy is devoted to the memory of the dead and therefore is grave and stately in its metrical form as well as in thought. Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," Milton's "Lycidas," Shelley's "Adonais," and Tennyson's "In Memoriam" are the most famous.
Idyllic poetry briefly presents a picture, complete and lovely, usually pastoral and romantic. Tennyson's "Idylls of the King," Goldsmith's "Deserted Village," the Idylls of Theocritus, and the Eclogues of Vergil are the best examples.